Following reactions to Masoud Pezeshkian’s interview with NBC News, Hossein Shariatmadari, the representative of Iran’s regime Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in the Kayhan newspaper, wrote that raising the issue of negotiations with the United States was beyond Pezeshkian’s authority and that his duty was to work toward the killing of Donald Trump.
On Thursday, January 16, Shariatmadari described retribution (execution) and death as the “minimum punishment” for Trump and his former Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, addressing Pezeshkian by writing: “Your duty as an honorable Iranian and Muslim is to carry out this divine ruling, not to negotiate [with him].”
In the editorial of Kayhan newspaper, he continued addressing Pezeshkian: “You do not own Iran. You are the president of Iran, entrusted with the executive branch of the country for four years as a temporary responsibility.”
Shariatmadari described Pezeshkian’s statements in his NBC News interview as “beyond his authority” and “a message of humiliation to the sworn enemy.”
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In his interview with NBC News, Pezeshkian stated that the Iranian regime had never intended to assassinate Trump and would not do so in the future.
Kayhan also attacked Pezeshkian’s statements and the topic of negotiations with the U.S. in several articles published on Wednesday.
On Thursday, the newspaper further accused Pezeshkian of taking a “strange and thought-provoking position” in his NBC interview, calling it part of the “continued contradictory stances that conflict with the overall policies of the system and the leadership.”
Kayhan compared Pezeshkian’s stance to the policies of former President Hassan Rouhani’s administration, while at the same time describing the positions of Abbas Araghchi, the foreign minister, as “revolutionary and based on the fundamental principles of the system’s foreign policy.”
Shariatmadari had previously written in the editorial of Kayhan on Saturday, January 4: “Those who bring up the issue of negotiations with the U.S. are either asleep, drunk, or insane.”
Op-ed by a Member of Khamenei’s Office on Negotiations with the U.S.
Mehdi Fazaeli, a member of the Office for the Preservation and Publication of Khamenei’s Works, wrote in an op-ed that negotiations between the Iranian regime and the United States would play a “very significant role in reviving American hegemony” and that “this is a betrayal of the entire world.”
He stressed that after the fall of Bashar al-Assad, the United States perceives Iran as “weak” and is “seeking to extort concessions.”
On January 8, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei called supporters of negotiations with the U.S. “intimidated by the enemy” and urged government officials not to consider the “unreasonable expectations of the Americans” in their decision-making on various issues, including hijab, inflation, and currency.
Other newspapers close to Khamenei have also reacted to Pezeshkian’s interview. For instance, Vatan-e Emrooz newspaper confirmed Pezeshkian’s statement that the Iranian regime had not attempted to assassinate Trump but simultaneously emphasized that the regime had not abandoned his “punishment.”
